Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

You have among you many a purchased slave,

Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,

You use in abject and in slavish parts,

Because you bought them:

 -Shylock

 The Merchant of  Venice                Act IV, Scene i, Line 90

 

Ahhh, The Merchant of Venice. It’s a very complicated play. Or perhaps it’s extremely simple. That’s the thing; it’s really hard to figure out.

In any event, this is the courtroom scene. We’re just getting started and the Duke (essentially the Judge) is trying to talk Shylock out of going through with the pound of flesh thing. He’s asked him to show a little mercy and then says How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none? To which Shylock replies

 

        What judgement shall I dread, doing no wrong?

You have among you many a purchased slave,

Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,

You use in abject and in slavish parts,

Because you bought them: shall I say to you,

Let them be free, marry them to your heirs?

Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds

Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates

Be season’d with such viands? You will answer:

‘The slaves are ours:’ so do I answer you:

The pound of flesh which I demand of him,

Is dearly bought; ‘tis mine and I will have it.

If you deny me, fie upon your law!

There is no force in the decrees of Venice.

I stand for judgement: answer; shall I have it?

 

So, bottom line, Shylock wants his pound of flesh. Period. End of story. It’s an interesting little speech, and this scene will go on. And we could spend the rest of the day and more discussing this scene, and this play. But not today. 

Now I would say that this is one of the most famous court room scenes in the history of drama. Off the top of my head two other real good ones that come to my mind are Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, and Jack Nicholson as Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men. How about you? Can you think of a really good courtroom scene?

 

I’ve had two real-life court experiences (that I can think of), neither of them particularly dramatic. One of them had to do with this house. It was a two-family that I owned and the tenants on the first floor screwed me out of a bunch of rent. I took them to small claims court and won the judgement, but the court didn’t do anything to help me collect the back rent. I’m not sure what, if any, relevance that has. On the other hand, do my pictures ever have much relevance?